A place where the elders, ministers, and ministry leaders of the Southeastern Church of Christ can share how God is working in their lives as they strive to serve the church that He has placed in their care.

Friday, November 20, 2015

The
above was the title to one of the best talks I have ever heard.Dr. David Thompson, a life-long medical
missionary in Africa, gave this inspiring message at the Global Missions
Conference about a decade ago.His point
was that we are safe nowhere in our world today. [Remember that his talk predated all our
current world crises.].He reminded us
that our earthly life is temporary and our eternal home is with God [our
ultimate source of safety]. Dr. Thompson’s
talk came at a time when he and his wife were preparing to return to Africa.He also
knew quite personally what he was talking about.Both his parents, missionaries in Viet Nam, were
killed during the Tet offensive. His father-in-law, a missionary in Cambodia, was
taken away by soldiers and never seen again.

So
what about today?Are we really safe
anywhere?The answer is a resounding
“NO”!Of course we exert due caution,
but none of us is safe or immune to tragedy or terrorists.The recent events of mass killings with ISIS
bringing down a plane and their horrific Paris
attacks show quite starkly that no one is safe.So, do we cover our heads, retreat, and hide in fear?Another resounding NO!We must remember that the forces of evil are
prevalent and ever present, but that our God is
greater!

But
I do think that the USA
needs a “reality check”.Something to
shake us up, so that we again can see what is really important.Here we are in a nation of surplus and wealth
– a nation where much of the world would like to live.I’ve known many well educated African people,
and virtually all of them have as their number one dream to come and live in America.But it seems that many USA nationals have
grown complacent with our wealth.It’s
taken for granted.So we see too many
people self absorbed, immature, and overly concerned about being “PC”, name
calling, feeling entitled, feeling like the ‘victim’, others being ‘intolerant’
of or ‘offending’ them - just add in the current fad or trend.Frankly, much of this behavior is sinful – not
what Jesus would have us be or do.

So,
what do I mean by a “REALITY CHECK”?I
mean something worthy of being really distressed about – not like much of the
piddly stuff of today. Something like not enough food.Most Americans today cannot conceive of such
a thing – real hunger and when it’s virtually impossible to get food.I’ve used the phrase before, but we Americans
have the “Blessing ofLocation”as opposed to being the “Victim of Location.”

I’ll let the words of Janice
Bingham speak for themselves.She’s our
dear friend and co-worker, a nurse practitioner, who has been in Zambia with HardingUniversity
students this semester:

“The Southern province of Zambia has experienced a significant
drought.Only about 1 out of 10 crops
produced anything during the last harvest.[One characteristic of Third World
is that they have no stock or storage set aside for such disasters].We hear
of so many peoplesuffering. So one
Friday we loaded up several large sacks of corn meal and bags of beans and
headed down some rough, dusty roads.Most of the people we encountered were the elderly – weak and
malnourished.In the African culture it
is the responsibility of the children to care for their aging parents, but many
of the younger generation have died of AIDS, thus leaving many “elder orphans”,
older people with no one to care for them.One older woman, unable to walk due to extreme weakness, had come to
meet us by traveling in an ox cart.We
came to a hut occupied by a man with polio – unable to walk because of
atrophied and contracted legs. There was no family to help care for him.He thanked us over and over for remembering
him in his time of need. There was hardly a dry eye in the group as we drove
away.//The next day we again came face to face with people in desperate
need.We went to a church where the
people were told to meet us.When we
pulled in, a crowd of women came running out singing, clapping, and overwhelmed
us with their welcome.[In the Third World it’s the women who always come first –
whether to church, to see a doctor, or to get food].We had
brought twenty 25kg bags of corn meal – one problem:60 people were there.Everyone got a portion.As we sat on the bricks in the tiny church
building, I had to wonder yet again, why did God chose to bless us?‘I don’t know.’ Now we know at least
something of the plight of the poor, and I pray that these students will be
motivated to dedicate their lives in service to the poor and down-trodden of this
world. It is definitely what Jesus would do.”

In another letter from
Janice she told me of an African man who cried [most unusual] because the
Clinic had none of the heart medicine he so desperately needed.Can you even imagine such a thing in America – not
being able to get the medicine you needed.She told of another teenager with severe rheumatic heart disease and
heart failure, who desperately needed heart surgery in order to survive much
longer.Not possible there!!

I know I’m “preaching to the
choir”, but let us keep our priorities in order and count our blessings and
remember, “What Is Safe?”

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Last year, when Kent Brantly said that he felt a “sense of
peace” when he was first advised of the diagnosis of having Ebola himself, I think I sort of
scratched my head and wondered how in the world that could even be possible. How can a man get a death sentence—a sentence
to die a horrifying, miserable death—and somehow be at peace? I think I was a little in awe of him. I was in awe of his faith that could provide
him that peace.

As if this was somehow his own doing.

Anxiousness can be debilitating. It can lock us up so that we can barely
function. It can cause us emotional,
spiritual, and physical distress. We can
literally get ill from worry. These
days, it seems that potential sources of anxiety are hitting us from all
sides. Politics. Elections.
Culture. Terrorism. Wars.
The color of coffee cups.

How do we find that sense of peace?

Would it help us if a certain coffee company printed “Peace
on Earth” on the sides of their cups? I doubt it.

Two things happened this week that have helped me better
understand this whole “sense of peace” thing.

First, I was part of a meeting and discussion the other day that
had the potential to be quite intense and I was very concerned, both about the
way it would transpire and the outcome at the end. This anxiety even affected the quality of how
I slept the night before. Frankly, despite my best attempt to be faithful, I was worried about it. Prior to the meeting,
I did a little praying. I asked God to
help, and you know what? All of the
sudden, I was at peace about it. I can’t
explain it. I just was. Not only that, but the meeting actually went
off very well.

I think it was a God thing.

Second, I related the following story about my dad to some
friends as we discussed Veterans Day.

Ralph DeCamp is the first man on the left.

In World War Two, my dad served in the Army Air Corps. He was a crewman on a B26 Martin Marauder
flying out of North Africa and the Mediterranean. He wasn’t a kid. Rather, he was a man in his early
thirties. He didn’t tell me many stories
from the war, only a handful. One stands
out, though. He said that on his very
first combat mission, he was scared to death—literally terrified. I got the sense that he was nearly frozen
with fear. If you need help to understand why, try watching those scenes from the mini-series “Band of Brothers”
where they were flying over Normandy to drop the paratroopers for D-Day. That will give you an idea of what he was
facing. Anyway, as he struggled with
his tremendous sense of terror, he prayed.

“God,” he said, “please
take away my fear.”

My father told me that at that point, a sense of peace came over
him. He couldn't explain it. It just happened. As a result, not only could he fly
with his crew and do his job, but when his own crew was idle, he began to fill
in with other crews. When men would find a reason to avoid a planned mission, he would volunteer to fly in their place. He reached the required number of missions to
be sent home long before the other men on his own crew, but instead of leaving them
behind for the safety of home, he stayed.
He wouldn’t leave until they all could leave. I have a document provided by a commanding officer that lists his missions--over seventy.

Then he came home.

I used to be in awe of my father’s faith. The faith that allowed him to be so brave. Like he had something to do with it.

I’m proud of him, of that there is no doubt, and it was his
faith that spurred my own. However, this
wasn’t about my dad. It was a God thing.

Consider Philippians
4: 6-7....

Do not be anxious
about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
And the peace of God, which
transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and you minds in
Christ Jesus.

We may not know the answers, but God can still give us
peace. We may not understand where it
comes from or how it even works, but God can put our hearts at rest.

So, let me just encourage you to turn to God the next time
you’re feeling anxious. If you’re
worried about a test. If you’re
concerned about an election. If you are
bothered by the direction of our society.
If you’re frightened by world events.
Give it to God.

He’s got this.

Now, after all this, if you want to talk, I’m available. If you need an ear to hear you, I’ve got a
couple of them. Give me a call. I’d be glad to meet you at Starbucks for a
cup of coffee.

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Jeff Walling tells the story from several years back when he was having some problems with his
computer.He had tried everything to
get the problem resolved, but nothing worked so he had to call telephone tech
support from the place where he bought the computer.The person was very helpful, but after trying
numerous fixes nothing worked.And that
is when the person said I think we are going to need to re-install your
operating system.Those are never the
words you want to hear because that means you have to strip everything off the
computer and start all over.It is the
only way to get a “fresh start”.

At times, there are things that I don’t want to deal with
that I must deal with in order to get a fresh start in my life.Sometimes I want to just press a button.I want to find the Staples “EASY” button to
press and suddenly my problem is solved or my life will be different, but it
does not work that way.

From the start of creation, humanity started corrupting
itself with the virus of SIN.Our
natural reaction when we do something wrong has not changed.Our first reaction is to cover-up because we
do not want someone to see the “real me”.We want to hide it.If we make a
mistake or have an accident our reaction is to run away and hide.

I remember several years back, Karen and I were getting
ready to head out on a short vacation to Mexico.We were in the airport terminal and my phone
rang.It was Chandelle.She had been in a parking garage and hit a
parked vehicle; actually she had ripped the bumper off the parked car.She was not sure what to do.I have to be completely honest and say that
my first thought was to tell her to take off and not tell anyone.But that was not the right thing to do.We talked and I told her to leave a note to
have the person give me a call so we could pay for the damage.She did, and the person called me and we paid
for the damage.

How do we get a fresh start when we have made a mess, when
we have made a mistake, when we have sinned?

We have to realize, that we cannot fix it. Covering it up
will not fix it and lying about it will not fix it.Running away from it and rationalizing it
will not fix it.It can only be fixed by
God.In Jesus, God gave us a new
beginning, a fresh install.We just need
the courage to accept it from Him.

I think it was Bob Herndon that gave an analogy that trying
to cover up your sin is like being in a swimming pool with several balls where
you are constantly trying to keep them all under water at the same time so they
cannot be seen.It can never last and
you grow weary.

Psalm 32 describes a new beginning and fresh start for David.It starts painfully….Blessed is the man in
whose spirit there is no deceit.The picture
here is that a person has to carry around their deceit/ sin like a bag around
their neck for all to see.David tried
to carry his deceit and not let it be known, and the passage says his bones
wasted away from his groaning all day long.Carrying the burden of his sin wore him out.David kept trying to cover up his adultery
with Bathsheba to the point that he literally committed murder for having Uriah
purposefully killed in battle.But God
sent Nathan to convict him of his sin and David confessed his sin to the Lord
and God “forgave the guilt of his sin”.David tried something else; he acknowledged his sin to God and did not
cover up his iniquity.

To have a fresh start today, have the courage to accept the
gift of God’s grace.God will forgive you
and his grace will lead you to different life choices.

Stop running and lying and covering and hiding and say to
the Lord this is who I am….please forgive me.

Titus 3: He saved us because of His mercy…He saved us
through the washing of rebirth and the renewal of His Holy Spirit through Jesus
Christ our Savior. He saved us because of His grace.